Raid reveals underage workers

Ex-supervisors say poultry plants often hired young laborers

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- First of two parts

Four months after turning 15, Lucero Gayton began work on the night shift at a House of Raeford Farms chicken plant.

Starting at 11 p.m., when most girls her age were asleep, the shy teenager with the brown eyes was working 10-hour shifts at the Greenville plant, wielding a sharp knife, cutting muscles from thousands of freshly killed chickens.

"I was scared that I'd cut my finger off," she said. "I did cut myself a few times."

Lucero lost her job last month in the largest immigration raid ever conducted in the Carolinas. She was one of six underage workers, ages 15 and 16, found among the 331 workers arrested at the plant.

Underage workers are a familiar sight on House of Raeford production lines, and not only in Greenville.

More than 20 current and former workers at three House of Raeford plants -- in Greenville, West Columbia, S.C., and Raeford told The Charlotte Observer that the poultry company frequently hired underage workers.

Six current and former supervisors said managers allowed the hiring in order to find cheap, compliant labor.

Because of the hazards, federal and state labor laws prohibit anyone under 18 from working on a poultry processing line.

Former supervisor Eric Lawson said that after he started at the company's West Columbia plant last year, a plant manager told him: "Most of [the workers] are illegal or underage. So they won't question anything."

Lawson was forced out of his job in April after arguments with his supervisors, he said.

In a February series on working conditions in the poultry industry, the Observer reported that House of Raeford had been cited for 130 workplace safety violations since 2000, among the most of any U.S. poultry company.

The Raeford-based company is one of the nation's top chicken and turkey producers, with about 6,000 employees and eight processing plants in the Carolinas and Louisiana.

After last month's raid, the U.S. Department of Labor launched an investigation into possible child labor violations.

Miguel Pascal, who got a job at House of Raeford's West Columbia plant when he was 15, described it as a perilous environment but an easy place to find work.

"Nobody asked me how old I was," he said.

In a written response Friday, House of Raeford said it follows the law. Every applicant must present identification showing they are 18 years of age or older. The company said it is required to accept documents that appear to be legitimate and prohibited from requesting additional documentation.

"Unfortunately, the documentation the employees present is not always genuine, or accurate, even if it appears to be," the company said. "Also, as we all know, not everyone tells the truth all the time."

Work in the U.S.

Lucero's father never wanted her to come to the United States. At least not until she was 18.

When Lucero called him from her mother's home in Oaxaca, Mexico, several months before making the trip across the desert, Tranquilino Gayton remembers telling her she wasn't allowed to come. He already lived in Greenville and periodically sent money home.

"You're too young," he said. "The trip is dangerous. Stay in school. You need to study."

But Lucero was determined to accompany her older sister, who had already received their father's permission. She knew of her family's financial problems. Her mother would sometimes cry when there wasn't enough money for food or medicine. Lucero wanted to help.

Lucero and her father argued for three weeks. She even threatened to move to another city if her father didn't welcome her in Greenville.